


Worth Your Money

by Myrime



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Don't copy to another site, Engagement, Fluff, Friendship, Love, M/M, Proper communication, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28170684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myrime/pseuds/Myrime
Summary: When Tony picked up Bucky from the streets for a quick tryst, he did not think he would find the love of his life. Thankfully, Bucky is more than ready to deal with any doubts Tony has from time to time. (They are not quite as good at telling Steve that Tony is not paying him for sex. Not anymore, at least.)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Comments: 14
Kudos: 143





	Worth Your Money

“And then Hammer had the gall to act like we were going to work on that together. Like, can you imagine?” Tony twists his torso around to look at Bucky, who has his arms crossed behind his head as he lies in bed, watching Tony with a private smile and not enough outrage. “As if I’d ever ruin my good reputation by even looking at the same project as Justin bloody Hammer.”

“You done yet?” Bucky asks, his voice a low rumble the way it sometimes gets at night.

He looks gorgeous, he always does. The blanket pools around his waist, leaving his upper body bare for Tony to drink in. The hard muscles lining his abdomen, the strands of hair sticking to his glistening neck, still sweaty from their former activities. Even the thick line of scars around Bucky’s shoulders that it took months for Tony to be allowed to touch.

Sometimes, Tony fights with feeling inadequate compared to Bucky, but by now he knows to voice these thoughts when they get too loud so that Bucky can show him how very much he thinks that is not true. They have a working system, at the very least, silencing both their demons.

It might be a crime to talk about Justin Hammer while he is in bed with Bucky, but Tony has needed to bitch about his supposed business rival all day and now is finally the time. Bucky knows how to shut him up when it becomes too much.

“I’m paying for your time so I can choose how to spend it,” Tony scoffs with a half-wink, and turns around to fully face Bucky again.

The hotel room has less than adequate lighting, leaving them mostly in shadows, but he sees the amused glint in Bucky’s eyes.

Mostly, he is just glad Bucky is here at all. They said their handsy goodbyes four days earlier when Tony left for the tech convention, but today Bucky was waiting for him in bed when he stumbled back into his room, exhausted from making nice with business rivals all day long.

“I just thought we could do something more satisfying than talking about than scumbag.” Bucky’s lips curl into something that is mostly a smile but tinged with disgust. There is a reason Tony did not smuggle Bucky into the convention. It would have certainly been more entertaining, but Tony could do without the bill for extended damages.

Tony tugs at the blanket, looking at Bucky through his eyelashes. “I’m not sure I should take life advice from a prostitute who chose to call himself Bucky.”

He laughs when Bucky presses his lips together and sits up. “Still my name. Still not a prostitute, doll.”

Tony watches Bucky’s muscles, transfixed enough that he falls into the banter without thinking about his words. The sight is heavenly, so no one can blame him. “And yet you keep taking my money.”

If he had his wallet nearby, he would be tempted to shower Bucky in dollar bills right now. He does not wear enough to stick them somewhere, of course. Perhaps it is time for some new jewellery. Or gold lining for the prosthetic arm. Not that Bucky really needs any enhancement.

“What did that terrible reporter call me?” Bucky asks, amused more than irritated at the press showing up at the most inopportune times. “Your kept man?”

Tony winces but hides it by running a hand through his hair. One of these days, Bucky will grow tired of all the complications coming with Tony. “It was boy toy,” he says, keeping his tone light and adding a suggestive grin. “And that’s easier to write than fiancé.”

It is still a miracle from Tony’s point of view, that he not only stumbled over Bucky and managed to take him home but that they are still together a year later, taking giant leaps towards promising each other _forever_. Pepper did not believe him and Happy ran a dozen background checks and Tony still expects to wake up one morning and find Bucky gone. This must be a dream. Or one of these truly good things that always, without fail, end too soon.

Bucky hums as he takes his time to look Tony up and down, smiling at what he finds even if it makes Tony rather self-conscious. “You know, my rates go up when I’m with a married man.”

“What?” Tony shakes his head in mock-outrage to hide the way he shivers at hearing Bucky say _married_. “The penthouse in the middle of Manhattan is not enough?”

They spend most of their time there already, but then it will finally be _theirs_.

Tapping his hand on the blanket, Bucky looks like he is thinking hard. “I want your weekends,” he then says, sounding snotty like one of the wanna-be business men Tony left downstairs. “Completely. No work, just us.”

And is that not the dream? Waking up next to Bucky, perhaps never even getting out of bed. Eating their meals together, working quietly, just content to be in each other’s company. Tony spent so much time alone, he never figured he would like a simple life like that instead of new conquests every other night. Perhaps he is getting old. Or he was a fool for thinking that he was immune to love when it finally came around.

“You’ll have to clear that with Pepper,” Tony offers instead of saying _yes, please_.

And Bucky, the smug bastard, simply smiles. “Pepper and I already have a deal. JARVIS and I too. Only you need to get with the program.”

Tony sniffs in mock-annoyance. “Why is it that everybody in my life loves conspiring against me?”

“Because we love you,” Bucky replies without missing a beat, making Tony’s heart swell. “And because you don’t know how to take care of yourself. And now come back to bed.”

Such a little, _enormous_ thing. Love. Tony is done hiding from it.

Yet, he crosses his arms in front of him, trying to emphasize the muscles in his arms. He might not be built like Bucky, but he is not to be dismissed either.

“I am in bed,” he says and does not move.

The bed is too small for that game, really, a far cry from Tony’s king-sized one in the tower. They would only have to reach out their hands to touch, without putting a strain on themselves.

Bucky clicks his tongue. “You’re not in my arms because you needed to yell about Hammer.”

Because Hammer is a dick who insists on following Tony around as if they are actually friends. No matter how direct Tony is getting, Hammer just does not understand a _no_. Still, Bucky has a point. Hammer has no right to come between them.

“When you say it like that, it does sound like a crime,” Tony says and pushes himself on his knees to lean forward. He does not yet cross the distance completely but Bucky’s hand is there all the same, carding through Tony’s hair in the sweetest of caresses.

“Capital,” he murmurs, voice dripping low again, which makes need stir in Tony’s stomach.

“I’ll reimburse you,” Tony says, leaning into Bucky’s touch. With a small grin, he adds, “I was thinking four hundred bucks?”

A laugh bursts over Bucky’s lips, making him look more delectable than ever. “Stevie will have a heart attack. I’m in.”

Tony can just imagine how Bucky, who is proficient in being a little shit, has been putting crisp hundred-dollar bills into his and Steve’s shared and very battered household cash box. It was nothing but a joke in the beginning because Tony, drunk and lonely, had thought Bucky to be a prostitute one night outside of a club. He had offered a horrendous amount of money if Bucky would come with him, and Bucky, who had been fairly into his cups, too, and tired of Steve pushing him into “having some fun again” agreed. After that, they just kept meeting and sex turned into talking and becoming friends and then something more. One of the luckier mistakes Tony has made while drunk.

“As long as he doesn’t kill me when he finds out the truth.” Tony shrugs. He knows all of Bucky’s friends by now and, surprisingly, gets along with all of them. Some of them might at least be upset if Steve made a move to get rid of him.

Bucky runs his thumb over Tony’s lips. His intense gaze does not match his light tone. “He changes between being horrified and amused that you would dish out your money so easily.”

Steve does know. Or at least he strongly suspects. He gave them both the shovel talk, even if no one called it that, and he would not bother with that if he thought Tony to be nothing more than Bucky’s sugar daddy, or whatever the kids call staged relationships between rich people and their arm candies these days. They have just never explicitly talked about it.

Tony suspects that Steve does not like him very much. That he disapproves of Tony’s fast-paced life and his tendency to spend money without a care. Bucky has repeatedly told him that’s nonsense. Apparently, Steve is glad someone managed to make him enjoy life again – after the military and the whole thing about losing an arm.

In the end, it is easier to send Bucky home with some cash every time, which Bucky can then, sneakily, use to pay Rogers’ bills. Tony is getting some pretty fine artwork out of it, and never-ending reasons to laugh with Bucky, so it is a win-win situation, really.

“You’re worth every penny,” Tony says, as if he has ever cared about money. He also regularly finds neatly folded stacks of dollar bills in his pockets and, one time, his shoes, that he has definitely not put there himself.

“I know.” Bucky grins and then holds out his hand to beckon Tony closer. “Now, come back here. Your hour’s not yet over.”

* * *

Later, thoroughly exhausted and aching in all the right places, they lie in the darkness of the hotel room, Tony cradled in Bucky’s strong arms. It is his favourite place in the world, hidden away from searching eyes and utterly safe.

Tony sometimes wishes Jarvis were alive to see him like this, happy and in a committed relationship. Howard, too, after he spent Tony’s entire childhood reciting his flaws and how he would never amount to anything. Perhaps this is his greatest achievement. Not Stark Industries’ miraculous turn away from producing weaponry. Not the countless patents under his name. Not even his continued friendship with Pepper and Rhodey. But this. Being in love. Being loved in return.

He is running careful circles over Bucky’s skin, wandering from his arm to his back and up his chest. When Bucky sighs, he feels the slight tremor more than he hears an actual sound.

“Do we have to tell the rest of the world?” Bucky asks into the darkness. “Can’t things just stay like this?”

Tony stills, forgets to breathe for a long second. He has a good poker face, but that does not help him while he is naked in another person’s arms.

“They can,” he says belatedly, even when Bucky’s arms have already stiffened around him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like a coward,” Bucky hurries to say.

The mood is already ruined, though. The sweet post-coital glow replaced by the harsh coldness of reality crashing back in.

“You’re everything but a coward,” Tony says, but the vehemence in his tone falls a bit flat since he pushes himself into a sitting position even while he speaks. Bucky tries to keep holding him close but does not force it when Tony wriggles free. “It’s just, people _will_ find out, and it’s better to just get ahead of them. It will still be a shitstorm when I announce you as my husband, and I wish I could spare you all that bullshit, but –”

He shrugs, imagining all the shitty things people will say about him and the “poor guy” he is dragging down with him.

“But it’ll be worse if they find us sneaking around. I know,” Bucky finishes his sentence. He props himself up on his elbow, looking apologetic.

“You don’t –” In his head, Tony had this conversation a thousand times; him nobly offering Bucky an out. It will never be easy, being connected to him, and since Bucky has demons he prefers to remain buried, Tony knows it is unfair to pull him into this mess, especially knowing how it will end. “I mean, you should really think about this. Talk to your friends.”

Bucky rolls his lips together, then pulls them up in an estimate of a smile. Neither of them comments on how strained it ends up. “You mean Steve, who still pretends to believe you’re paying me for sex and nothing more?”

The joke falls flat and still Tony wishes he could pick it up, could pretend he does not have to take Bucky’s worries seriously because everything will turn out fine in the end.

“You know what I mean,” he replies a little impatiently. He does not want this to culminate in a _I told you so_ situation before they part forever. “Don’t do this because you feel obligated or anything. I won’t hold it against you if you want to back out.”

Tony cannot look at Bucky, afraid of what he will see. Even the slightest bit of hesitation will be his undoing. He never knew how to do anything half measure. If he falls for someone, he does so with his entire being. He never much cared for saving himself, and he does so even less now.

Bucky reaches out and takes his hand, squeezing until Tony gives up and finds Bucky’s eyes.

“I want you, Tony,” he says, with his voice and his gaze, and means it.

Still, Tony tries to harden himself against that. “You’d get a nice sum so you won’t have to worry about the flat or the maintenance for the arm and –”

A finger on his lips cuts him off and he complies happily, even if does not allow himself to feel relief yet.

“You should shut up know and kiss me,” Bucky says, orders really and tugs at Tony’s hand, trying to pull him back down.

“I mean it, Bucky.” Tony raises both their hands to his lips and presses a small, desperate kiss against Bucky’s skin. “What we have is nice but I come with a lot of baggage.”

He does not mean to sound dismissive and yet he catches the hurt flickering over Bucky’s face. What they have is not just _nice_.

“Don’t tell me about baggage,” Bucky snaps, but his face immediately softens. He sits up too, then, and scoots close enough that his knee rests against Tony’s thigh. “You know all of my bullshit too.”

True enough, Tony’s story is a lot less bloody than Bucky’s, a lot less traumatic too, although Sam likes to preach that they cannot compare trauma, that everybody reacts differently and objectivity has nothing to do with it.

“But yours doesn’t come with stupid reporters following your every step,” Tony argues and that, at least, is true. Nobody can dispute that. 

Bucky’s eyes crinkle when he looks at Tony. “I love you, Tony,” he says and the words, as always, break free a storm in Tony’s chest. “Don’t worry about me. I love you and that’s all that matters.”

That should be enough, but Tony is a worrier. “You say that now,” he says, very quietly, almost hoping that Bucky will not catch it. But Bucky is practiced at gauging his moods and reading between the lines.

Bucky shrugs, carefree enough that some of the weight drops off Tony’s chest. “If they become too much we’ll simply fly to your private island and hide until they grow bored.”

Against his will, a smile tugs at Tony’s lips. “It won’t be that easy.” But he imagines that it could be. They could take his plane and vanish before anyone knows what is happening. Pepper would murder him, of course, but she wants him happy, too. They could work it out.

“I know but I don’t care.”

They should leave it at that. Tony leans forward, rest his head against Bucky’s shoulder. Sometimes it is still unreal, the way Bucky is always willing to hold him.

“What if you’ll regret it?” Tony asks against Bucky’s skin, barely more than a whisper. “What if you’ll regret me?”

That is how his greatest fear shifted. From not wanting to die alone, from never finding what Jarvis and Ana had, to losing this.

“I won’t,” Bucky promises, soft and determined enough that Tony cannot help but believe him. “And before you protest, I could ask you the same thing.”

Tony snaps up his head to squint up at Bucky. “You’re brilliant,” he intones, full of the conviction he always lacks when it comes to himself. “The best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Bucky smiles as he did something clever. “There you have your answer.”

A grimace pulls on Tony’s face. He does not like being played, not even for his own benefit. “But I’m me and you’re – you,” he tries, one last time. He gets tired of doubt, does not want it to ruin the good moments they have.

“And don’t you ever change.” With that, Bucky pulls him closer again. “Now, let’s talk about nicer things. Or better yet, stop talking.”

That is the best idea Tony has heard all night. All week, really, with all those bumbling idiots here for the convention.

“You’re insatiable,” Tony says as he shifts to better fit against Bucky, skin against skin, lust blooming again inside his gut. 

Chuckling, Bucky presses his lips against Tony’s neck, slowly working his way upwards. “I just want you to get your money’s worth.”

That stupid joke will never grow old. “Then better get working. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a billionaire.”

Instead of wasting any more air on words, Bucky pulls Tony closer, sealing their lips together in what feels like a promise. Tony still does not know how he managed to get so lucky to have Bucky in his life, but he knows he would not change a thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
